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Sometimes the most minimal theatre is the most spell-binding. Will Eno’s “Thom Pain (based on nothing)” consists of a single actor rambling on for about an hour on a nearly empty stage. It’s a tightrope act that demands that both the performer and the audience stay almost breathlessly on their toes. And when it’s done right, as it is in Available Light Theatre’s mesmerizing production, it leaves more conventional theatre in the dust.

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The play is performed in the intimate setting of the Vanderelli Room’s gallery space, which means that Pain can pace freely through the small audience, casting his gaze here and there, making one audience member after another squirm, and hinting at potential embarrassments to come in a way that would be less effective in a more formal space.

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Magic – which Pain feels, at the very least, ambivalent about – is one of the recurring themes of the play, and appropriately so. The play makes use of rickety sleight of hand to lull the audience into a state where more real, and more dangerous, philosophical and emotional magic can do its work.

WAIT FOR ME started on slips of paper taped into a notebook, tiny private moments of public solitude that nameless characters would experience. A sorrowful woman clipping photos from a magazine. A giggling child hiding in a home furnishings store. A sweet-looking nurse cruising Goodale park, despite the comatose patient he is wheeling around with him. When a man in neat-looking suit knelt praying in a church and proceeded to shove his wallet into the collection box, I knew some kind of play was taking shape.

WAIT FOR ME is a play about faith – what we choose to believe in, where we place our trust and direct our attention, and how we navigate the moral/ethical values of our evolving society to move forward in our lives. It is a play about friendship over long stretches of time, and how economic inequality and privilege can slowly poison relationships and communities. It is a play about loneliness, which was captured in those early bits of information I gathered from my subconscious; many of the characters are surrounded by other people and yet feel completely alone. How can faith help to dissipate that condition? How does it fail us?

Of course, I had no idea these were the questions I was asking when I began to actually write the play, slowly, over the course of over a year and a half. Dialogue and then characters and situations began to emerge in tiny drips and drabs. A relationship between two characters – Drew and Tim – announced itself, causing me to totally change my idea of a moment or a scene between them. Another, Larry, threatened to dominate the play entirely with his savagely funny anecdotes, and another – a headstrong woman from Philadelphia named Margot – huddled at the edge of the story ready to dive in, even though I had no idea how she fit into the story or who she really was in relation to these other characters, a web of urban gay men at the dawn of a new era of rights and privilege and purpose.

Writing this play was a very different experience for me. I’ve been thinking and wrestling a lot with the concept of “shape” in theater – what the play’s container looks like. And this play, with its tiny random moments and large chunks of dialogue floating around, just wasn’t acquiring a shape. I had no idea what the whole of it looked like, how the entire story would play out over the course of an evening. In many ways, the process was similar to what I was taught in acting class – the breaking down of a character into moment-to-moment authentic existence. Over and over again, I would attempt to form a linear narrative around these moments. I had an ending for the play, but had no idea how to get there. Nothing coalesced.

I flew home to Columbus. Matt Slaybaugh and Acacia Duncan took me to the Columbus Museum of Art and the gorgeous new Margaret M. Walter Wing. I whined to them about my play and what a mess it was. I told Matt “I just want to . . . “ and described a dramatic moment that I was impulsively thinking about throwing into the proceedings of the play. Matt’s response: “Why don’t you write that? I’d want to see that play.” By giving me permission to act on the impulse I had (which derived from the months and pages I had spent with the characters in my play), Matt helped me unlock the shape and structure of the play. And Acacia was the actress I wanted to play Margot.

Now, a mere two months later, a group of Columbus’ smartest actors will read WAIT FOR ME in front of a public audience for the first time. This play is the result of over two years of writing and thinking and observing as our country moves forward in terms of progress and back in terms of our humanity towards each other. It is the result of a delicious lunch (at the bright Schokko Art Cafe!!) with trusted friends and collaborators. Available Light Theatre is at the forefront of new play development in Central Ohio, and it’s a particularly dynamic company to return to again and again. I always look forward to sharing my plays with their audiences and learning from their responses.

Did you miss our Season Announcement Party? Don’t worry, we’ve got all the details right here. This is, in fact, almost exactly what we read to the crowd. There’s much more to come, so stay-tuned to avltheatre dot com.

Feed Your Soul ’15August 29, 2015 @ The Riffe Center for the Arts
Mark your calendars for the sixth edition of the most fulfilling fundraiser in town. Feed Your Soul returns with Columbus’s most creative silent auction, good eats for all, and a one of a kind performance.

The Grown-UpWritten by Jordan Harrison // Directed by Eleni Papaleonardos
We’ll kick off the season with this sad, funny, time-bending adventure about how to survive growing up. NPR called it “charming and painfully universal.” All we’ll tell you now is that it involves a empty stage, a magic doorknob, and an extended metaphor about the power of of imagination and storytelling.

One Night with Available LightOctober, December 2015 and April 2016
This year we’ll introduce a series of one-night-only performances in which Available Light will stage consequential plays that every theatre-goer should consider essential viewing.

Dedalus (A Portrait of the Artist)Adapted by Matt Slaybaugh from A Portrait of an Artists As a Young Man by James JoyceNovember 2015
Here’s a surprise: Available Light wants to adapt a strange and difficult novel into a strange and challenging stage-play. This time around the book is A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce, which celebrates its Centennial in 2016. This will be, of course, a radical adaptation, titled “Dedalus” after the main character of Joyce’s novel. In our version, Stephen Dedalus will be played by a dozen different actors as the play twists through the dreams and memories of a blossoming artistic soul.

The Next Stage Initiative 2016January 2016
The Next Stage Initiative returns with 6 hot playwrights and their works in progress, including at least one play destined for production in a future AVLT season. As usual, it will be six nights of new collaborations, co-produced by Jennifer Schlueter of OSU and the for/ward company.

Jane Austen’s Pride@Prejudice (On Tour!)Written by Daniel E. Kramer // Directed by Eleni Papaleonardos
Spring 2016
A crowd favorite is back by popular demand. Available Light will hit the road once again with a show that requires no introduction. We have unfinished business with places like Dublin, New Albany, Westerville, and Granville. We hope to meet all our suburban neighbors at the theater for performances of this beloved classic.

Thom Pain (based on nothing)Written by Will Eno // Directed by Matt SlaybaughFebruary 2016
Playwright Will Eno has been called “a Samuel Beckett for the John Stewart generation.” If there’s such a thing as stand-up existential comedy, this play, “Thom Pain (based on nothing),” is it. Company Member Jordan Fehr will perform this surreal, one-man meditation on the way life never quite lives up to the awesomeness of living.

24 Hr Thtr 2016March 2016
One Friday night last fall, we gathered more than 30 amazingly talented local actors, playwrights, directors, and theatre-makers, and gave them 24 hours to create six original works. And we had a blast. We made new friends, rekindled old partnerships, and filled Studio One to the brim for a raucous one night only slugfest. When it was all over, everyone said the same thing: “We have to do this again next year.”

Robin & Peter Hersha present… as yet untitledDirected by Eleni PapaleonardosMay 2016
To cap off our season, the entire company will – for the first time ever – work together to create a single show: Robin & Peter Hersha present… AS YET UNTITLED. Amongst ourselves, we call it “Body Movin” or “Dance Dance Revolution,” and suffice to say, it will be physical. Recognizing how easily we disconnect from our bodies in the digital age, we’ll explore what it means to have a body, how to find joy in inhabiting our bodies, and the many ways we’ve forgotten about how our bodies relate to the world.

And… that’s the season. We’ve got new staff, new leadership, new programs, new shows, and new opportunities for up-and-coming artists to make their Available Light debut. It going to be a huge year for anyone who’s into what Available Light’s is up to.

As you may know, we’re currently raising money via Kickstarter to create our dream project about the city we love so much: Columbus, Ohio. We are connoisseurs of Columbus here at Available Light. We love our city not for its own sake, but for the great variety of incredible culture(s) it hosts, and for the fact that (as our friend Leigh Householder once said,) “You’re basically guaranteed to be rubbing elbows with an artist whether you’re shopping the North Market or noshing on Hyde Park steaks.”

Here are Top Ten lists from seven of Columbus’s biggest fans. And we want to know – What’s on your Top Ten? Post up in the comments and share the love.

Drew’s Favorite Places in Columbus (with a casual suggestion of when to be there):
10. Comfest …I’m a fan of the comedown on Sunday evening. The music is still going strong, but the blankets are out and the food lines are short.
9. The Shoe … October afternoon games are the best. We’re in the Big 10 schedule, and that perfect fall clip is in the air.
8. Harvest Pizzeria … The porch after nightfall, when it’s cool enough to wear a sweater.
7. Audobon Metro Dog Park … Whenever there’s energy to burn.
6. Tigertree … A day or two before his birthday.
5. Adriadico’s New York Style Pizze … Your budget birthday party.
4. Bat-n-Rouge Softball Game … It’s all about the pre game banter. Hilarious.
3. Drexel Theater – Bexley … I tend to go during Oscar season, Saturday, 11:00 AM showing, with a coffee. You get the hardcore moviegoers and will not hear a cellphone.
2. Little Palace … After a show with the Available Light family.
1. The Book Loft/Schiller Park (double feature) … Take your time shopping then stop on a park bench for Chapter 1.

DETAILS – Please prepare two contrasting monologues for a total two minutes or less. (You’ll be timed.) Provide a headshot and resumé if you have them. Please be prepared to fill out a form detailing your scheduling conflicts.

Check out Jesse Tigges excellent preview of Don Quixote: a pilgrimage in today’s Columbus Alive. Featuring interviews with playwright Jen Schlueter and director Matt Slaybaugh, Tigges goes into depth about the creation of the play and the unique perspective Available Light brings to the 400 year old novel.